The Madras High Court has directed Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) to appoint a transgender as Sub Inspector of police as she is entitled to get the job.
The first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, also directed TNUSRB to include transgenders as a "third category" by the next recruitment process is carried out.
The court directed Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) to consider transgender K Prithika Yashini's application for the post was initially rejected, following which she moved the High Court.
"We are, thus, of the view that she is entitled to be recruited to the post of sub-inspector and for declaration of her result with the hope that she would carry out the duties with dedication and commitment to advance the cause of other transgenders," the judges said appreciating the cause canvassed by Yashini and the fair stand taken by Advocate General A L Somayaj
Prithika Yashini submitted to the court that was a male, K. Pradeep Kumar, till completion of PG diploma course in Computer Application, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore. She then underwent a sex change at Kilpauk Medical College and legally notified the same.
When she wrote the exam for the post of SI, she cleared it but it was in the field trials that she missed the 100-metre cut-off by one second. She was rejected for this reason. Prithika Yashini then went to court challenging the rejection.
According to Deccan Chronicle report, the bench said, “We do not think that in the physical endurance test, a difference of 1.11 seconds should come in the way of the petitioner in being considered for recruitment. She will have to meet the benchmark of the recruitment process, but the case cannot be knocked out in the middle.”
Two transgenders have been recruited earlier in the police force and are working as police constables.
